**2. Use of antibiotic in animal production**

Antimicrobials' use in animal production dates as far back as the 1910 when due to shortage of meat products, workers carried out protests and riots across America [25]. Scientists at that time started looking for means of producing more meat at relatively cheaper costs; resulting in the use of antibiotics and other antimicrobial agents [26]. With the global threat of antibiotic resistance and increasing treatment failures, the non-therapeutic use of antibiotics in animal production has been banned in some countries [8, 27–29]. Sweden is known to be the first country to ban the use of antimicrobials for non-therapeutic purposes between 1986 (for growth promotion) and 1988 (for prophylaxis) [27]. This move was followed by Denmark, The Netherlands, United Kingdom and other European Union countries [27]. These countries also moved a step further and banned the use of all essential antibiotics as prophylactic agents in 2011 [30].

Several other countries have withdrawn the use of some classes of antibiotics or set up structures that regulate the use of selected antibiotics in animal production [29]. Despite these developments, it is currently estimated that over 60% of all antibiotics produced are used in livestock production, including poultry [6, 31].

The use of antibiotics in poultry and livestock production is favorable to farmers and the economy as well because it has generally improved poultry performance effectively and economically but at the same time, the likely dissemination of antibiotic resistant strains of pathogenic and non-pathogenic organisms into the environment and their further transmission to humans via the food chain could also lead to serious consequences on public health [32].
